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THE WALKER Send This Review to a Friend
One of the films I least appreciated at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival was “The Walker,” writer-director Paul Schrader’s opus about a society hanger-on whose associations lead to his being a murder suspect. It is now getting a commercial release.
The film has pretensions of being sophisticated, with an entourage of names in the cast, apart from Woody Harrelson playing Carter Page III, including Lauren Bacall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mary Beth Hurt, Willem Dafoe and others. Harrison does a good job, occasionally sounding like a caricature of Truman Capote as he regales the gossipy Washington society ladies who enjoy his supposed wit and charm.
The plot involves Page in agreeing to cover up a killing. For his good deed, he becomes suspect himself and enmeshed in various agendas and ambitions. The combination of scandal and efforts at suspense meanders along without the story taking hold in a gripping way. The result is an unsatisfying feeling despite the efforts of a strong cast and Schrader’s attempts to pile on atmosphere and make us think we are watching something clever and substantial. We aren’t and it isn’t. A THINKFilm release.
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